, well
proportioned to the unusual size of many of the works of art which hung
upon the walls.

Dore received us with cordiality, and showed Mr. ---- the picture which
he had suggested, already nearly completed. He appeared to be about
forty years of age, in figure above medium height, well set up and
balanced. His eyes were blue, his hair dark, his facial expression very
genial. After some conversation with the English visitor, he led the way
to his latest composition, which represented the van of a traveling
showman, in front of which stood its proprietor, holding in his arms the
body of his little child, just dead, in the middle of his performance.
Beside him stood his wife, in great grief, and at her feet the trick
dogs, fantastically dressed, showed in their brute countenances the
sympathy which those animals often evince when made aware of some
misfortune befalling their master.

Here we also saw a model of the enormous vase which the artist had sent
to the exposition of that year (1879), and which William W. Story
contemptuously called "Dore's bottle."

The artist professed himself weary of painting for the moment. He seemed
to have taken much interest in his recent modeling, and called our
attention to a genius cast in bronze, which he had hoped that the
municipality would have purchased for the illumination of the "Place de
l'Opera." The head was surrounded by a coronet intended to give forth
jets of flame, while the wings and body should be outlined by lights of
another color.

In the course of conversation, I remarked to him that his artistic
career must have begun early in life. He replied:--

"Indeed, madam, I was hardly twenty years of age when I produced my
illustrations of the 'Wandering Jew.'"

I had more than once visited the Dore Gallery in London, and I spoke to
him of a study of grasses there exhibited, which, with much else, I had
found admirable.

I believe that Dore's works are severely dealt with by art critics, and
especially by such of them as are themselves artists. Whatever may be
the defects of his work, I feel sure that he has produced some paintings
which deserve to live in the public esteem. Among these I would include
his picture of Christ's Entry into Jerusalem, for the contrast therein
shown between the popular enthusiasm and the indifference of a group of
richly dressed women, seated in a balcony, and according no attention
whatever to the procession passing in the street ju